AU! In a world where a dragon can be your best friend or your worst nightmare, Lucy Heartfilia has been forced to undergo the challenge of taming one of these fearsome creatures. Haunted by her mother's death, will she be able to let go of her fear and come to love her dragon companion? Along with a few others too. Pairings: Nalu, Jezra, Gruvia, GaLe, RoWen

Author's note: Hello my friends! So lately, I've had a bad case of writer's block, and that's kept me away from Icicle Dreams! I know what I want to happen, but I just can't MAKE it happen…. If that makes sense.

So even though I've had no motivation for that story I've had tons of ideas for new ones. So this is a brand new story for you all to read! I'm not sure how long this one is going to be, but I hope you like it! Hopefully after I can write a few chapters of this and get it out of my system, I'll be able to continue with Icicle Dreams! (ID is not on hiatus, its just waiting for me XD)

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail!

For the past seventeen years, I've harbored a… what is perceived as an unnatural fear of dragons. I just don't understand how someone can feel so comfortable with a ten foot tall, fire breathing beast. Hell, up until the Great Dragon Revolution, human kind was terrified of these creatures. So why is it that me, a poor, defenseless little girl, is being forced to go live with these monsters that will probably end up killing her?

Well, allow me to explain.

My name is Lucy Hearfilia, daughter of Jude and Layla Hearfilia and heir to the Heartfilia fortune. As someone looking in, you probably don't understand how big a deal the Hearfilia name is, but trust me, you will. Anyways, like most kids here in Fiore, I too had grown up around dragons. They were just about as common as a dog and most people have them. Well, maybe not most, but a lot. Before I was born, only those with a high pedigree were able to tame dragons, but now, dragons do the choosing and almost anyone is able to become a dragon tamer.

Well, almost. It is said that a dragon only chooses its master if they are 'pure of heart.' I don't exactly believe that because my father has a dragon, but that's besides the point. So even though I've grown up around dragons, I'm still afraid of them. I probably wasn't always afraid, maybe just a bit timid when I was younger. Sort of like a child and electrical socket. You want to touch, but you understand the pain that comes with it.

Unfortunately, it seemed like I was the only one who understood that pain. Both of my parents were successful dragon tamers, and both kept dragons of their own. Although I said almost anyone could have a dragon, having a powerful dragon is still a sign of hierarchy. Dragons are used to race, fight, and are even a form of entertainment. If you had a powerful dragon, who could stop you from taking over the world?

No one.

That was the way my father saw it. His dragon, Lucky, was a powerful fire dragon, and my father was not afraid to use his power in order to get what he wanted. My mother on the other hand, realized the beauty and the nobility of the dragon. Hers, whom she named Love, was a docile water dragon. I remember spending hours nestled between Love's wings as my mother told stories of their adventures together. Those were my fondest memories of my childhood. Me, my mother, and her dragon.

One of my father's favorite quotes is 'all good things must come to an end.' I remember him saying that at my mother's funeral. I was only seven at the time and he said that to me as I sobbed at her graveside. I don't remember much about that day, but those words stood out to me. My mother's death hit me hard. She and Love had been out together, taking a stroll like they normally did every afternoon. Mother called it her quiet time, Father called it irresponsible, a grown woman skipping around a field of flowers with such a high quality dragon. While they are walking, something snapped with Love. She started thrashing around and became uncontrollable. One of our servants had seen it happen, had seen the normally docile dragon pick up my mother in her mouth and shake her around till her neck snapped. I don't know exactly how true the story was, but I believed it.

From then on I became determined to shut dragons out of my life. I would never touch one, or be near one, or ever become a dragon tamer.

But of course my father had other plans.

For children of nobles, a tenth birthday is very important. It involves an important ceremony that calls forth your chosen dragon partner. I always thought it was stupid. If poor people could still get dragons, why did we need such a complicated ceremony? I learned later it was all for publicity, but as a ten year old, I was in the dark.

I still held fast to my beliefs, well more like my fear, of the dragons though. Even after waiting all through the night, and later into the next day, no dragon could be summoned for me. My father was aghast. That night he screamed things at me along the lines of 'how dare a Hearfilia child not be able to summon their dragon?' and 'you are an embarrassment to this family!' I had blocked most of the yelling out, since when were we a family? Of course, being the outspoken thing I am, I voiced that opinion and was smacked across the face.

The next few years were similar to that. Every now and again my father would have me try and summon a dragon, but again had no luck. I made sure of that. No way was I about to befriend a beast that had killed my mother. Father told me he was ashamed of me. When I was fifteen, he had no problem screaming at me about how all his rich friend's kids were in school becoming powerful dragon tamers. For the most part, I ignored him and went back to my writing. It was the one thing I could take solace in.

But then, the quote came back, and all 'good' things must come to an end. Before I turned seventeen my father had haughtily showed up at my door and said he had enrolled me in the prestigious Dragon Tamers School of Fiore. If I hadn't been a smart girl, used to my abusive father, I would have laughed. A tamer school taking a girl without a dragon? I had asked about that, plus brought up the fact that by this time, most tamers had been in school for years, how did he expect me to thrive in this environment?

He had a smirk across his face and simply told me to 'wait and see.' With that he had left the room and a few moments later, my maid, Virgo, walked in carrying an arm loads of clothes. Tamer clothes, I had noted. She had gone on and on about how we wouldn't know what specific colors to pick because we didn't know what kind of dragon I would have. We packed them all and she had given me a tearful hug. And that was the last time I ever saw Virgo.

Nah just kidding, but I decided that would be the last night I would ever spend at the Hearfilia estates. Sure, I would go to this dragon school. Then I would make sure they wouldn't want me, run away before my dad found out, and try to make my way in the world by myself.

The next day we got up early and piled my belongings into the car. With only my father and I, it was a very quiet ride. It was almost a three hour drive to the school from our house. The perfect distance to be away from daddy, but for him to still be able to keep an eye on me, I noted. After arriving at the school, my father and I said very stoic good byes. He seemed almost as happy to be rid of me as I was of him, only he didn't know it was going to be permanent.

And this is where we are now.

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"Now Lucy, I think you're going to love it here! We've have children come before without dragons and we were able to match them up with one hundred percent success!" One of the headmasters, Makarov told me. We were walking down one of the marbled halls that would lead to the classrooms. "Now, you'll have four classes a day, starting at 8 am. Two before lunch and two after. Classes are an hour and a half each. Once school finishes for the day, you are welcome to do as you see fit. As long as you are able to get your homework done." He added.

"Yeah? And what is there to do in a place where the walls are so high you can't see over them?" I asked, a little snarkily. The first thing I had noticed about this school were the ten feet metal walls that surrounded the school. I was told it was to keep dragons in and out, but I'm sure it was more designed for students in mind.

Makarov, or Master he said to call him, chuckled. "Well most people work with their dragons. Learning by doing and all that. We have a variety of clubs and events to participate in. Once you are able to summon a dragon, you will be invited into one of the four elemental houses, but that all depends on your dragon's element. What were your parent's elements?" He asked me.

"Water and fire." I told him shortly. Two elements and people who certainly did not mix.

"Peculiar. Not the most common of combinations." Master said. "Well although it's no guarantee, children are more likely to have the same elemental type as their parents." He pointed up at me. "A dragon can sense that you know."

I nodded my head, trying to hide my eye roll. "Right, well we've tried in the past but I'm just not cut out for being a dragon tamer." I told him. Maybe if he realized right away that I was a failure, he'd just let me go. Unfortunately, he just scoffed.

"You want to know who told me that? My grandson when he was about your age. Now look at him, one of the most successful dragon tamers in the country." Master told me proudly. "He's also going to be one of your teachers here. Like I told you before Lucy, we have a 100% success rate." He told me, looking straight into my eyes. I mentally cursed. He was obviously used to dealing with spoiled rich types like me.

"Alright, alright. So we start tomorrow?" I asked, arms crossed in front of my chest. The little man started laughing. He didn't even come up to my waist, but his laughter still shook the room.

"Oh no! There's no better day than today!" He said gleefully. "Now come with

me. We're going to see about finding you your dragon!" Master told me as he pulled my arm. He led me through the maze of a school and all I could think about was how I was ever going to remember where I was. After what seemed like an eternity of stumbling down never ending halls, we ended up in a large grassy field. The field seemed to go on for miles until finally ending at a forest.

"Woah." I breathed and I heard Master chuckle beside me.

"Yes. Woah indeed. DTS is a school located on almost a hundred miles of land. The school is just the entrance." He told me. "As we speak, there are dragon tamers in the woods working with their dragons, in lakes, and we even have an arid desert type land. We want our students to be prepared in the most extreme conditions." I nodded my head dumbly as he continued. "Now, we must go out into the wilderness!" He said dramatically and raised a whistle to his lips. He blew two short tweets and then waited. I looked around confused.

My confusion didn't last that long. Suddenly, my view was filled with a large yellow dragon soaring above us. I mentally panicked and backed away, preparing to flee. Master grabbed my hand and held me there. "Now now, Mavis wouldn't hurt a fly." He assured me. I gulped. Yeah, well, we weren't flies now were we?

What had to be the biggest dragon I had ever seen landed before us. Its large yellow wings spread out and laid on the ground. The dragon gave a mighty roar and looked at us expectantly. Its whole body was lined with spikes that stood up. I froze watching the beast as it ambled towards us. Master held out a hand to the dragon and she stopped.

"Lucy, this is Mavis, my partner. She's an earth dragon. Although she looks pretty terrifying, she's just a big old teddy bear." By this point, Master had walked around to the front of the dragon and had scratched under her chin. "Come here, say hi! She won't let you on until you've introduced yourself." He told me.

"Lucy, Mavis isn't a thing, she's a lady. Isn't that right?" He said in a baby voice to the dragon who thumped her tail happily. "And of course. I don't believe in that mumbo-jumbo summoning crap those high society folks use. The best way to meet your dragon is to go out there and find him. So come here and introduce yourself!" He ordered. I inched over to the dragon. Alright Lucy, just one foot in front of another. Before I knew it I was face to snout with the yellow dragon. She watched me expectantly. "Well? Tell her your name." Master prodded.

I held out my hand hesitantly. "Uh… Hi Mavis. I'm… uh, Lucy?" I said, feeling really stupid I was talking to an animal. Mavis gave a sort of whinny-cough and pushed her snout against my hand. I froze at the contact. Her head was hard and cool, but if you pushed on the scales I'm sure they would contract in. Her brown eyes stared into mine and I felt myself falling into them. I don't know how long we stood there like that but Master's voice brought me out of my trance.

"Good! I knew you'd be a natural! Dragons can see things we can't you know." He told me. "Alright! Let's board this dragon and get started!" He climbed onto the dragon, grabbing her spikes for support but obviously not hurting her. He instructed me where to grab and I pulled myself up. Once sitting on the dragon, I could feel her muscles work under me and she walked along. Even with the saddle, I could feel the coolness of her skin. I squeezed the edges of the saddle.

"Alright Mavis. Show me what you can do." I whispered and the dragon cocked one of its ears. I could see the Master's grin from behind and before I knew it, Mavis had pushed off the ground and we were flying through the air. Of course, I screamed. Even when Mother was alive, she never let me fly with either of our dragons. And I could see why, with ever turn and spin, I felt like I was going to slip off the dragon and fall into the sky. I grabbed onto Master and squeezed hard. I was going to die, I was going to die, I was-

"Lucy! Do you see over there?" I heard Master shout over the wind. "There's a nest of water dragons! They just hatched last week! We're going to go check on them!" He told me. I nodded my head and refocused on the land around us. We had cleared the grass land and were flying high over the forest. Mavis dipped a few times until Master clicked his tongue and she dove for the ground.

Besides the fact that I probably wouldn't be able to speak tomorrow from all the screaming, we reached the ground unharmed. I slid off the back of the dragon and fell ungracefully to the ground. I felt Mavis' spikes fold under my back and then rise back into place as I slid off. Once Master was off, she shook and then lumbered off towards a stream of water.

"Now be very quiet. We don't want to spook the mother." Master told me, a finger to his lips. I sweatdropped. Oh great, lets invade the mother's nest. See how that goes. We practically tip toed over to a small cave at the base of the river. Master held up a hand for me to wait and then walked in the cave. After a few moments I heard voices from the cave. A girl's voice. A few minutes later, Master and a girl with curly blue hair walked out of the cave. The girl carried a small bundle in her arms.

"Lucy, this is Juvia Lockser, one of our resident water dragon slayers. She discovered the pregnant mother and has been caring for her and the babies for the past week." Master said, introducing us. The girl, Juvia, smiled brightly. She was wearing a pair of short black shorts and a white tank top, with a short dark blue jacket over top. Blue, the sign of a water tamer, I noted. I looked closer at the bundle in her arms and realized it was moving!

"Hello Lucy, I am Juvia, and this is one of the three baby dragons that hatched the other week. He is sick so I have to pay special attention to him." Juvia explained. She slightly unwrapped the bundle to reveal a small grey dragon with blue spots dotted all over him. "I'm calling him Dot for now. Want to hold me?" She told me happily.

I smiled at her. "Great. And no, I'm good thanks." I said simply. She frowned at my response and directed her attention back to the baby dragon.

Master sighed. "Yeah I didn't think you'd work well with water either. Let's move on!" He called and climbed back onto Mavis. I looked around confused, had I just failed some kind of test? Juvia shrugged and turned back to the cave. "Well, come on!" Master shouted at me. I scurried back to Mavis and climbed on.

"Want to tell me what just happened?" I shouted over the wind once we were up in the air.

"Water types are very affectionate. Very cuddly. Your outright rejection made it very obvious that you and a water type would not get along well, so we'll try another element." Master yelled back. Oh alright, so I had failed a test.

"Where to now?" I asked him a few minutes later. We were now flying over what appeared to be a great lake, headed towards mountains. I had never seen mountains in this part of Fiore, so this was new.

"Going to look at some earth dragons! I have a feeling you wouldn't do well with fire. They're big practical jokers!" Master said and I could hear the smile in his voice. Har har har. Me? Not take a joke? Please.

We landed a few minutes later and climbed off the dragon. I saw a huge black dragon munching on a piece of steel happily, oblivious to its surroundings. Master held up a hand to the dragon in greeting. "Yo. Titania! Where is Erza?" He called out to it. The dragon, Titania, made a low screeching sound and shook itself, a layer of soot coming off and revealing the dragon to not be black, but silver with black markings! A few minutes later a girl came jumping down the rocks from a platform on the mountain.

"Master! I didn't see you coming. Usually Mavis is much louder." A red haired girl said good naturedly. She noticed me and waved. "You must be the new student we've heard so much about!" She said grabbing my hand and shaking it. "It's odd to get a new student in our grade so we're all excited to meet you! My name is Erza Scarlet!"

"Lucy Hearfilia." I responded. I took in her appearance. A brown skirt with a simple white button down shirt. I assumed she was an earth tamer. Virgo always told me it was important to know what kind of tamer a person was, and usually their clothes reflected that. Each element had their own respective colors. Water was shades of blue, earth was browns and greens, Air was yellows and whites, while fire was red and black. This was an important thing to know. "Nice to meet you." I said finally.

She nodded in approval then went back over to Master. "What can I do for you today?" She asked him.

"Any feral earth dragons lately?" Master asked her and she shook her head in response.

"No. Earth dragons are more likely to keep to themselves. I haven't seen any new litters or even any eggs." Erza told us. "Though there is that one dragon I've seen flying around here… but no, as far as I know, there is no wild earth dragon available." Master sighed.

"Alrighty then." Master said shoving his hands in his pockets. "I guess I'll try and find Mira then. She'll know if there are any wild dragons roaming around." He told us. Erza scoffed.

"Oh please. You just want to see MiraJane." She muttered and I looked at her questioningly. She simply shrugged in response. "Well, good luck Lucy. I guess I'll see you in class too." She said and walked over to her dragon. She gave Titania an affectionate pat and climbed on. A few moments later they were up into the air flying towards the school. The sky was starting to get dark. I hadn't realized how much time we had spent flying around the campus.

"Well Lucy." Master said with a sigh. "I think it's about time we go back. We still have tomorrow to find one too. This isn't the end of the world!" He said positively. I nodded and climbed back onto the dragon. Well at least I was a little more comfortable with Mavis. Without delay, we too pushed off into the sky towards the school.

After a few minutes I could tell something wasn't right. Mavis kept veering off to the right and had to be redirected by Master. He told me it was nothing to worry about. Mavis was an old girl and was just spooked by something over by the woods. After a few more minutes of this Master clicked his tongue at Mavis and she seemed to settle down. The rhythmic flapping of her wings put me into a trance and I zoned out a little pit. I didn't notice when I dark figure shot up from the tree brush right in front of our path. Mavis stopped suddenly and jolted back, almost spinning in the air.

In the confusion I lost my grip on the saddle and fell back, but I didn't connect with any part of the dragon. I felt myself slip off from Mavis and fall. Master called my name and I reached helplessly, but we were too far apart. I fell fast towards the earth. This was it. I was going to die because of a dragon just like my mother. I squeezed my eyes shut. Air whooshed around me as I fell and I counted down the seconds till I would hit the ground.

Then suddenly, I did hit something. It knocked the air out of me, but it definitely wasn't the ground. I felt muscles bulging underneath me and hard flapping around me. I flipped over and found myself on an unsaddled dragon. I looked up to see Mavis and Master diving after us, relief etched on his face.

The dragon I was ridding seemed to understand and gave a cry, and Mavis slowed in her pursuit. We continued flying towards the school and Master followed behind us. I hesitantly stroked the dragon behind the ears, thanking it. It was dark, but I could see she was almost all white, white yellow outlining her body and muscles. An air dragon, I concluded. No wonder it was fast.

Air dragons were one of the fastest dragons out there. Usually a bit smaller than others, but their small size made them perfect for speed. After a few more minutes we landed. I slid onto the ground, this time collapsing onto it. The dragon nudged me slightly but made no sound. Master ran over to me once he too had landed.

"Lucy! Are you alright! I hadn't noticed, but we had strayed too close to a fire dragon's nest. Territorial little bastard didn't like how close we were and tried to attack." Master explained quickly. I nodded and he sighed in relief. "Alright lets get you looked at though, I'm a little worried-""Master I'm fine. Thanks to this dragon." I said pointing at her. Master side stepped me to go inspect the dragon.

"Oh this was the little girl who Erza was talking about earlier. She's about ten years old, young for a dragon. We don't know when she got here, but she's been flying around ever since. She's faster than most of our dragons so no ones been able to catch her and inspect her." He said running a hand over her neck. The dragon stretched out happily under his touch and opened her mouth in a smile.

"What's her name?" I asked, assuming all of the dragons had names here. All the ones I've met so far had. Master chuckled.

"There's no dragon that would save a random human out of the goodness of his or her heart. Dragons are just like us, they only do things when they see fit. This girl must have seen something in you and decided to make you her partner." Master explained. I felt my jaw drop. They really did have a 100% rate. "Well go on; introduce yourself to your savior."

I walked over to the dragon and held out my hand like I had for Mavis. The dragon looked at me with a bored expression. I swallowed hard. "Hey there. Thanks for saving me back there. My name is Lucy Hearfilia." I told her, when I got no response I continued. "The guy over there says I should name you, but I mean, you've been alive for ten years, I'm sure you already have a name, right?" I asked, babbling a little. To that the dragon opened her mouth and let out what sounded like a cry mixed with a laugh. 'Celeste.' I heard a voice in the back of my head say. "Celeste?" I asked her, resting a hand on her snout.

She locked eyes with me and nodded slightly. Alright then, Celeste it was then.

Master cleared his throat and grinned at us. "Lucy, Celeste, welcome to the Dragon Tamer's School of Fiore, and congratulations on taking your first steps on become a dragon tamer!" He practically announced. I grinned a little bit and leaned on Celeste. Nah, this was one dragon that wasn't so scary. I could get used to this.

Celeste cried out into the air, her voice almost deafening. The eight foot dragon reared back on her hind legs and continued her cry. I panicked slightly and Master gave a low whistle.

"She's celebrating." He told me and I relaxed a little. But I still moved over closer to Master and farther away from my rambunctious dragon. "She's only ten, which is similar to a child in our lives. You're going to have to be patient with her Lucy. You two will be learning together, so keep that in mind." Master explained to me. "There is an empty stable around back you can keep her in tonight. We will find a more suitable place in the morning for her." He instructed me where to go and I assured him I could handle it myself.

After a few minutes of being lost, I finally found the stable, with Celeste lumbering beside me. It was a small stable, with only six compartments. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought I was for horses. I led Celeste to an open room and she immediately settle down in it, walking in circles until finally laying down.

"Alright, you be a good girl." I told her, proud of how quickly she had adjusted to life here. I closed the door and took a few steps away from the door…. That is until I heard the low pitiful cry of a dragon. It sounded like crying and almost broke my heart. Almost, until I heard an angry voice screaming to shut up. I reopened the door and found Celeste, who was watching me with her opened mouth smile. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" I asked her and she made a high pitched laughing sound.

I opened the door of her little room and sat down next to her. "Alright, but only till you fall asleep okay?" I told the dragon. She lowered her head and closed her eyes, please with our deal. I leaned back against her and closed my eyes. A few minutes later I felt her drape her wing over me, keeping me warm. Soon I was lulled to sleep by the warmth and the rhythmic breathe of my new dragon partner.

Author's note: And that's chapter one! I really hope you like this! It was a great way to cure my writer's block and its given me a new story to work on! Its also given my ideas for ID ;)

Please review and tell me what you think so far! Next chapter will mean more characters and more exploring of the school! I have names for almost all the character's dragons, but I'm still missing a few! I'm trying to base the names of their powers. (Lucy-celestial spirits, Erza- Requip, but they call her Titania so I thought that would be cute) Please just throw out a few names! Don't be afraid! Reviews make me so happy and make me wanna write more!

Love you all!

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.